When a crisis hits — an epidemic, a natural disaster, a major accident — a hospital has no time to improvise. The difference between an institution that keeps functioning and one that collapses under pressure is almost always the quality of the plans it built long before the crisis started.

This course from the Arab British Fellowship Training Academy equips hospital leaders and health professionals with structured plans for every stage of a health crisis, from anticipation through response to recovery. Drawing on lessons from recent global epidemics, participants learn how to allocate resources, protect patients and staff, communicate under pressure, and keep improving performance after each incident.

Who Should Attend?

• Hospital directors, executives and administrative and operations managers.
• Doctors, nurses and public-health specialists.
• Safety, security and emergency officials.
• Crisis and disaster management professionals working in the health sector.
• Health administration and health policy professionals.

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Assess the medical, administrative and logistical risks that crises and epidemics pose to hospital management.
• Build strategic response plans and manage emergencies effectively.
• Lead through a crisis: making difficult decisions, managing teams and communicating with key audiences.
• Apply best practices that protect patients and staff and maintain care quality under pressure.
• Turn lessons from past crises into continuous performance improvement, including managing the psychological toll of crisis work.

Module 1: Understanding Crisis Dynamics in Hospital Settings

• What makes hospital management different when a crisis or epidemic hits.
• Mapping the medical, administrative and logistical challenges hospitals face in emergencies.

Module 2: Building and Resourcing the Emergency Response

• Developing emergency plans for epidemics, natural disasters and major accidents.
• Analyzing real cases and rehearsing scenarios for putting emergency plans into action.
• Identifying and allocating critical resources — beds, supplies, equipment — during a crisis.
• Strategies for using and distributing resources efficiently under pressure.

Module 3: Protecting People Through the Crisis

• Safety and prevention practices that limit the spread of an epidemic inside the hospital.
• Protecting hospital staff from health and safety risks.
• Building communication strategies that keep the public and employees informed during a crisis.
• Coordinating with media, local authorities and other health institutions.

Module 4: Learning From Every Crisis

• Using data to evaluate hospital performance during a crisis and pinpoint what needs to improve.
• Building a continuous-learning approach that strengthens performance under future emergencies.